Category: Personal Care

Challenge Accepted Day 8

Well today has been a little bit odd and I haven’t taken a closeup bare naked photo of my face for you to compare with last week (hopefully you’re not looking for a miracle, just a realistic product that works to assist in the defying of revealing our true age right?) that’s all I’m looking for, though on some days a miracle would be lovely too! 😜 anyway, the maintenance guy turned up with someone else this morning and they spent the next 5 hours jack hammering my balcony and in the process ensured my shower rod and curtain fell off, rendering my shower disabled until the hubby comes home, ergo, no shower for mwa! And I’ve had to put up with my own stinkiness after doing T25 cardio this morning, so I’m certainly not going to assist in further torture to myself by taking a selfie (& I hate those on a good day so it doesn’t take much to turn them down when I have no make up on and am doing a challenge with myself revealing every flaw I dislike about me! 😉). 

Anyway, the workout was a little better this morning, though that little voice in my head did keep wanting me to stop and do nada! Strong will prevailed and I kept going! I will be in shape! Something has to give! Just saw some photos from our cruise and I definitely have a belly in those too. Probably from drinking too much wine as well as doing nothing for the last few months. 

Alright, so I do have some good before and after photos to show you of bits of my bedroom! Every morning, I have gotten up in this little tiny room and been miserable because there has been too much stuff! I can’t even get out of my side of the bed because we have to have our bed against the wall in order for it to fit (yes we have a big bed in a little room). Anyway it has meant that I have learnt to catapault myself out of the end of the bed if ever I have to go for a midnight toilet break and I’ve gotten so good at it over the last two weeks that hubby no longer hears me, well until I trip over one of the numerous items on the floor that just keep piling up because I am yet to find a home for them!

  
  
Oh and here’s a before one of the main blog photo:

  
  
Looks and feels wonderful! I may wake up happy tomorrow morning and not all grumpy! It’s amazing what one’s surrounding can do to one’s mood! Speaking of mood, I have to share another funny story but this time from my 7yr old daughter, Madison; we were putting our shoes on ready to walk out the door to go to the bus stop to get my eldest DD when she started singing a song something like this:

One day Max and Ruby’s parents got on a bus and they told their kids they would be going away for a day, 

But they never came back! Max and Ruby didn’t know why, but their parents never came back! 

Now, I know it doesn’t sound funny like it is, but if you’ve ever seen the show ‘Max and Ruby’ you would know that the parents are never seen! Only the Grandma and the Bunny Scout Leader. Now I’m not purposely being un-PC, I just find it weird that there’s never any mention of anyone other than those two grown ups and they don’t live with their Grandma, and my daughter has obviously picked up on the same thing. Please don’t look at this in a tragic way, it is purely the innocent mind of a 7 year old, and it’s funny in this instance. Don’t get too deep and meaningful will you! 

Ok, it’s noodle Monday, which means the kids get ramen noodles (aka two minute noodles, aka one of the unhealthiest foods known to man but one that all kids love), I try to mix it up a tad so that it’s not just plain noodles and tonight it’s beef stroganoff and noodles. One of the easiest, but most delicious meals I’ve ever made. I would always get so excited when my Mum or oldest sister would make beef stroganoff! Here’s our way of doing it and I can’t give you quantities because I really don’t do quantities in recipes, I just guesstimate:

  • Whatever beef you’re using, in this case today, I’ve got a family pack or 2.21lbs of top loin steak – but it looks like it has a lot of fat on it, so I’ll trim it down and see how much I’ve got left!
  • Olive oil to cook beef in or coconut oil or butter, I actually used a little bit of coconut oil and olive oil missed tonight.
  • 1 small can tomato paste (6oz or 170gms or thereabouts, it’s ok if you have a little more or a little less)
  • Some onion, because my eldest daughter is really fussy about onion, I like to use the  Kirkland chopped onion flakes and just sprinkle them in after I’ve browned the beef.
  • Beef stock also, more rather than less, if that makes sense. 

 So when I say more rather than less, I mean that for every cup full of water you have a bit more than what the container recipe calls for you to have, per cup of water. 

  • Corn flour (aka corn starch in the States)
  • Water to mix with your beef stock. 
  • Sour cream
  • And I think that’s about all.  

I’m terrible at recipe writing obviously, but I’ll get better especially if I find you are slightly interested in reading this sort of stuff! I must also share a little side victory about my success with all three children over the last seven days and them all eating every single dinner I’ve made and actually really liking 6/7! Ok back to the next step:

  • Cube and brown beef
  • Add onion
  • Add tomato paste
  • Add beef stock mixed with boiling water (1 big heaped teaspoon per US cup water as per photo)
  • Let simmer for at least 20 minutes until beef tender, then add a couple of teaspoons of cornflour mixed in with cold water and add to beef until thicker. Add sour cream. My mum used to make her own by mixing regular cream with vinegar but for some reason in the States, regular cream is really expensive and sour cream isn’t. Anyway, if you can afford, I’d go organic, if not then I use Daisy light sour cream  1lb (454gms) + one half so if I was in Australia or NZ or UK, I’d use a 750gm tub if there is such a thing or about 1/4 less than Costco’s kilo tub.
  •  Add sour cream. My mum used to make her own by mixing regular cream with vinegar but for some reason in the States, regular cream is really expensive and sour cream isn’t. Anyway, if you can afford, I’d go organic, if not then I use Daisy light sour cream 1lb (454gms) + one half so if I was in Australia or NZ or UK, I’d use a 750gm tub if there is such a thing or about 1/4 less than Costco’s kilo tub….And wallah! Cook your two minute noodles and strain, then pour this amazing sauce over the top or have your noodles on the side and have this as a side or do whatever you like! Hubby prefers this with pasta but I mix it up every now and then and throw it into noodle night so the kids are getting more than all the crap that make ramen (2 minute) noodles, what they are!

  

  
The final product was magnificent as usual! And one of the easiest weekday meals to make! Let me know if you try it and enjoy it and if you want more from me. Otherwise, happy Monday, it’s not as bad as you think, it’s just the beginning of another week we get to celebrate being here! 

    Challenge Accepted Day 7

    Good Sunday to you! How is it Sunday night already? Feels like my weekend flew by as per usual! I hope you have made the most of yours. I’ve been doing quite a few different things this weekend, trying to really get into my new life here as well as my want to treat my body somewhat better, nonetheless, I have an Aussie friend who lives in England and has been drinking a turmeric hot drink for a very long time, she has told me about it before and I’ve thought about making it but never actually gotten there, until today. I made the base for it late last night then drank the turmeric latte this morning. It was actually quite lovely. I can assure you, I was very skeptical given the ingredients and I over compensated on the honey, try it with only one teaspoon full of honey before you add a second. I also used regular ground turmeric (that was all I had) but I did have organic coconut oil so used that. No non-dairy milk either, so regular cows milk it was. I’m going to look next weekend at Costco to see if they have any cashew milk so I can just drink it with this drink, but I wasn’t too concerned, it was really the health benefits of the turmeric I was looking for. It is also known as golden milk or turmeric tea and you can find a great recipe for it here:

    http://kellybroganmd.com/so-long-coffee-hello-turmeric-latte/

    And here’s my cup this morning:

      
    There are plenty of recipes out there though and as I was searching for my cardamom this morning, I came across ginger and thought oh I bet that would be a lovely addition to it also, I think the key thing is to get the incredible benefits of the polyphenol antioxidant curcumin that is known to help many different ailments and what is also the key factor in giving turmeric its golden colour. 

    Whilst on my turmeric kick, another recipe came across my newsfeed for turmeric toothpaste (isn’t it weird when Facebook reads your mind like that). Apparently Indian dentists swear by it so I thought why not give that a try too? Here’s a link to that recipe:

    Turmeric toothpaste
      
    It doesn’t look pretty, but it didn’t taste too bad when I used it this morning, I followed it with my regular toothpaste brushing as I didn’t see the harm in using both methods either, so we’ll wait and see. I will take my 1 week photo tomorrow smiling so we can look at how my teeth are in another week after using this method. 

    Okay, let’s get to talking about my favourite thing I’ve done today, macro exfoliation! Rodan + Fields have this amazing tool called the Redefine Macro Exfoliator and I LOVE it! It is honestly the best 5 minutes of my skincare regimen all week, especially when I haven’t done it in over two months! Anyway, I think last Monday I had mentioned that I had found the empty box but not the tool, well I found the tool a couple of days later and had to charge it up so I decided Sunday night was going to be my macro night. 

    How does it work? Well it’s this handheld personal tool (it’s the main photo for this article) that works using some great patent-pending technology called DOC-SMART, where the level  and length of time varies depending on which part of your face you are exfoliating. It is basically like your at-home microdermabrasion but with med spa quality results and all for a fraction of the price. It is a big investment to start with, retailing for $279 + tax & shipping but it is so worth it in my humble opinion. I seriously love this product. I used it tonight and my face feels amazing, I almost took a photo of all the yucky dead skin and crap that came off my face into the filter but I couldn’t bring myself to, it really wasn’t a pretty site! Instead I took a couple of close ups for you of the diamond tip head and the little picture on it that shows you how the DOC-SMART technology works, she literally shows you where to go next with the force of the exfoliation adjusted to the sensitivity of that area of your face and neck. I do go against her recommendation when it comes to the neck and I go with upwards strokes rather than downward and then I switch it to manual to use on the back of my hands every now and again, and it really shows when I do.  Everything just feels much softer and lighter and happier! 
     
      
    Now onto the T25 side of the challenge, I must say that both hubby and I really enjoyed the stretching today! It was amazing how it felt to relieve some of the tension in your body after working it so hard! I have never done that side of it before and I should have, it definitely gives you hope that the week to come will not be anywhere near as hellish as last week! I did want to do more exercise today as I felt I was slacking off a little but I also knew my body had worked hard all week and it was ok to give it some rest today. Our original plan was that the  family would bike ride through the rice paddies but it was overcast and cold and hubby hurt his back last night so it just seemed like the best idea was to hang out with each other and watch movies (well the kids and hubby did this afternoon whilst I pottered about). We had a really nice pot roast beef for dinner tonight but I’m feeling a bit blah right now as I definitely ate too much! And I have to do a personal weigh-in in the morning 😩 oh well, them’s the breaks right?

    Have an amazing day/night, no matter where in the world you are and I’ll see you on Monday for another great week of challenge fun! 

    Challenge Accepted Day 6

    Super short and sweet today. My skin felt amazing this morning when I did my morning regimen, so my break from the Amp MD roller did me the world of good, it also felt quite lovely and velvety, so I’m definitely happy with how it’s feeling. I’m also looking forward to doing the macro exfoliation tomorrow night, more on that to come.

    It warmed up here to a balmy 3C so it was actually warm enough to go for a quick run with my darling eldest daughter (who did nothing but complain the entire time) & my crazy, lovable puppy dog, you know the ‘golden doodle’, who thinks that anything short of a three minute mile is slow, therefore pretty much ripped my arm out of its socket throughout the run! Anyway it was a short but sweet run, maybe 3/4 mile, I’ll have to borrow hubby’s Fitbit equivalent and see what it says as far as distance goes. It was a day off from T25 (YES) so my body has been thanking me all day! 😜

    I went out with the family and did some grocery shopping and finally got some potting mix so I could repot some plants we bought when first got here. Cannot wait until it starts really warming up and we can spend some more time outside. I also started a little project I saw on Pinterest, spray painting any tin cans we use so we can line them all up on the railing interspersed with spaghetti sauce mason jars with tea candles in them so we can give a little bit of colour and life to our little patio (photos to come when that project is finished). I think it will look really cute and if it means I can upcycle and stop the copious amounts of waste we seem to be putting out along with everyone else here in South Korea, then that will be something. I’m not going to be taking any of it with me when we leave but I can always just try to give them to someone else can’t I. It’ll be really nice to see it all come together. 

      
    Alright, it’s pizza night tonight, I told you guys I wasn’t dieting right? I’m too old for that, but I do need to get into shape again so that’s the whole point of this. Normally our pizza night is Sunday night, but we didn’t have a roast in the freezer so we did a swap (I bought a roast today) so I can get the roast on early tomorrow in the crock pot so it literally melts in your mouth. We’ll do a salad with pizza I think too. Otherwise, it’s all about trying to put this never-ending mess of a house together. I feel like we take two steps forward and three steps back on some days! I just want everything to have a place and I have done such an amazing job of throwing so many things out and still the crap seems to be everywhere! Yes, my hoarding problem has had to come to an end and I’m pretty sure I’ve already gotten rid of at least 400 pounds of extra stuff and I have at least another 200 pounds ready to sell at a garage sale in the near future! So everything is a big thumbs up from my hubby at the moment. Again, we’ll have a deep & meaningful (D&M) about my real hoarding problem that I’ve had to deal with over these past few weeks on another day. 

    We are going to go for a family bike ride tomorrow through the rice paddies, so that will be really fun! I’ll make sure to take some photos so you can get an idea of what I’m seeing. Have a great night/morning, whatever the time may be in your neck of the woods! 

    Challenge Accepted Day 5

    I am smoked! Today’s workout has been a killer. Not one but two! Legs and cardio! Seriously! I’m not sure which one should be done first, today I did lower focus followed by cardio but when good old Shawn T asked me to do some outrageous squats in the cardio routine, my legs started screaming in pain! So next Friday, I shall switch it around and let you know how that goes. I even managed to do a mile run afterwards, there wasn’t much of a warm-up or cool-down for the run, but I was already pretty warm so I didn’t feel too badly. 😜

    As for the regimen, well my neck is feeling great but I think I’ve pushed it too soon by using the Amp MP daily so quickly, I should have heeded the Doctor’s advice (Dr Katie Rodan & Dr Kathy Fields) and started out a little slower, so tonight I’m going to give the roller a miss and go back to it tomorrow night. I’m still not seeing any radical changes but I’ll do a photo on Monday side by side with my first photo and we can have a looksy, I really want to share this journey with you, so let’s see if we can find any difference already & if not, then that’s ok too, I’m not expecting anything radical just yet.

    I did realize that I should have had my eyebrows done before I took my first ‘before’ photo but I’ve had such a hard time finding somewhere that does threading (something I fell in love with in the Middle East and have managed to find in Italy, Texas, Hawaii and Colorado Springs, but not here in South Korea (apparently there was a spa at the first hotel that we stayed in upon arrival in Seoul that did it, but I was jet-lagged, concerned about my animals, absolutely freezing – the temperature ranged from -28 to -32C when we first arrived here, that’s -18.4F to -25.6F! Aka: hell freezing over! So I didn’t do a whole lot). Anyway, I gave up yesterday after searching and ended up having my brows waxed at a little salon outside of Osan AFB. It was ok, my brows looked wonderful, but then again any grooming they had would have been marvelous and my mono brow – after 2 months of no grooming, was definitely asking to see a professional! My apologies for the shock brow photo, they will look a tad better upon Monday’s photo release, I promise.

    I also have to tell you about another area I dilly dally in, and that is being a Bzz Agent. What is a Bzz Agent I hear you ask? Well, it’s this fantastic job where you get to test products for free or almost free and share your opinions online and in person. So I just got my first product, Covergirl Lashblast Volume mascara in very black. My first impression when opening the packaging was a little disappointing because they use a plastic bottle cap that is to be disposed of as soon as you open it, the environmentalist in me, doesn’t like such waste when the brush has worked just fine thus far for so many previous products. I do like the thickness of the mascara though as it goes on smoothly without clumping. And the color is a nice black, black, sounds weird I know, but it’s not a blue-black, or a brown-black, it’s exactly what it says it is. The brush is possibly not quite pointy enough for my liking, I have sort of squinty eyes and found when nearing the end of my eyes where they meet my nose, I ended up with a little dollop of mascara on my nose, so I had to be more careful on the other side. I really like the texture of the mascara though and all in all would have to say that it goes on nicely, doesn’t clump and makes my lashes look a little more voluminous.

    Ok, funny thing for the day and once again it is my son who just cracked me up; his favourite movie is Pixels and the character Ludlow gets the girl, Lady Lisa, in the end. Hunter has just finished watching it for the umpteenth time and came over to me very seriously and said, “She’s a lovely girl, I want to be Ludlow so I get the girl!” Three and a half years old! There’s probably going to be a lot of Hunterisms throughout this blog as he cracks me up daily! You have to watch the movie to understand why that’s hilarious! 

    So my afternoon has been interesting, my new neighbor came over and asked if I wanted to go for a walk with her through the rice paddies (everyone has told me that it’s a great walk with the kids and dog) unfortunately, given my double work out earlier this morning, the last thing I could think about was doing more walking! As I was heading to the bus stop a couple of hours later though, I decided to call in there and see if she wanted to come over for a glass of wine and yay, she did. It was really nice to have some female conversation, she seems like my sort of person too, sadly, she’s leaving in May, but that’s ok, I’ll enjoy her company whilst I can and she has a lot of knowledge about local things so we’re going shopping next week to a local market where I can finally get some nice fresh fruit and vegetables, I was starting to wonder where the good, fresh produce was hiding, as it certainly isn’t at the commissary, or even Costco, or Emart. Anyway, to say I’m excited is a little bit of an understatement, we’re going to get lunch at a local Korean restaurant she knows and just enjoy getting out of the house. I don’t get to do that very often now given the one car situation, so it will be really nice! 

    Alright, well it’s  Friday night here, the family have all started watching The Good Dinosaur – let me just digress a little about that movie; not what I was expecting at all! Hubby bought it when he went back to the States a couple of weeks ago thinking it was going to be this great feel good movie for us all (& there might be a spoiler alert here if you haven’t seen it) but wow! Not what I was expecting at all! I like the different take on the human, just wasn’t quite ready for it, but I wasn’t expecting so much sadness, nor the tripping out on whatever those berries were! Anyway, can’t wait to see Finding Dory, that one will definitely be worth it’s wait! 

    Ok, I’m going to say sayonara. Have a great day or night depending on where you are and don’t forget to share your thoughts with me on my blog. I’ll give you details next week on my website if you’re looking to take the Rodan + Fields challenge with me, there is a 60 day money back guarantee, so spend your weekend giving it some serious thought, oh and my Aussie friends, I know a few of you loved Proactiv and these products were created by those same two doctors who created those amazing products, they just decided to move to an age group reflecting their own ages, ie, anyone over the age of 20! 😉 nonetheless, they are launching the Rodan and Fields line in Australia, so if you’re interested, it will soon be there.

     Happy travels

    Challenge Accepted Day 4

    Well here we are, day 4 already and I’m yet to see any results! Too soon you think? I know, I know, it won’t happen overnight, but bloody hell, I’d really like it to! I’m a bit over Shawn T. “In and out,” “Feel it in your core, are you good?” No I’m not bloody good, my core is telling me to stop torturing it! And you and your fit sidekicks can all piss off! Ok, that only happens for about 24 minutes, the rest of the time I love it! 😜

    I did notice this morning a big scratch on my neck that stung when I was doing my morning R+F Redefine routine, but it wasn’t from the products, obviously either my kids, or my dog, or myself during sleep, someone/something scratched me and man did it sting when I was cleaning my face. Anyway, I did put a little bit of the Soothe Sensitive Skin Treatment on the scrape so in the interests of keeping you guys informed, I just wanted you to know of any products I use. I’ll let you know how it feels tonight when I do my nightly Redefine routine, but I was once burned quite badly by a woman in Colorado Springs when I bought a Groupon for laser hair removal and unfortunately in this instance, cheaper isn’t always better, I honestly thought I was going to be scarred for life, my Dad told me to sue her, it was all crazy, anyway, my friend Sue suggested I use the Soothe Sensitive Skin Treatment for the burns so I did and that combined with vitamin E, completely got rid of my burn marks. 

      

      
     
    These marks were immediately visible when I got home from having the laser hair removal, I wasn’t happy and it hurt like hell, but thank god, my skin healed after about 3 weeks. Here is a more recent photo of my yucky, white, hairy legs (please forgive my candidness) I wish they were tanned and lovely but I feel like my winter has been never ending with living in Colorado where it snowed up until June (with some nice days in between) then we went to Australia in July/August and had just a tad more winter, followed by Autumn (Fall) upon returning to Colorado, with Winter starting all over again in October (yay! – Oh how I wish sarcasm could come through in writing without having to point it out!) at least we had some nice days where light jackets were ok. To top it all off, we saved to go on a cruise before moving to South Korea and Texas decided to go from 80 odd degrees Fahrenheit the day before we got there to 40! Houston had the coldest, windiest, most overcast miserable day it had had, the day we boarded our ‘warm’ cruise! (Ok, maybe a little exaggerated) but you can see how rugged up we were! 

      
     
    So back to today, my son & I went on our first adventure together here in South Korea, it was only over to the Airforce base at Osan to get our visas for our extended stay here, but we did park the car at the gate and wander through the market that is at the front of the AFB. We had some wonderful Thai food from an authentic Thai restaurant there and I got to practice my very little Thai with the lovely hostess/waitress named Juree. On top of that, I got to eat one of my most favorite meals in the entire world, Tom Kha Gai – the scrumptious Thai soup with lemongrass, coconut milk and chicken and it was made to perfection! I’ve attempted it many times and it just never tastes as good. 
    We wandered around, ate Baskin Robbins ice cream (oops) and had a lovely time together. Then it was time to get back to our little village to get Madison from the bus. We’re also only allowed one car here unless we can prove we need another one (we can’t just yet ), so I had to be back for child pickup, hubby pickup, dinner prep, you name it! Unfortunately that didn’t end my day; we all (the kids and I) need to follow up on our Japanese Encephalitis Vaccination (JEV) so we went to the immunization clinic on post, thinking it couldn’t be too difficult (but knowing in my heart of hearts that nothing’s ever too easy either) only to be told that they don’t see dependents there! What? Why would you have dependents here and not vaccinate them? “Ok, so where do we go to get vaccinations?” “I think Osan takes dependents…” You think? Seriously, you’re not sure? Oh my. Oh well, luckily I haven’t dragged my three children to the immunization clinic, waited for 20 minutes only to be told after telling them the entire way there and parking the car etcetera, etcetera, that they were going to get another shot! Luckily, winter has ended and it’s a balmy 3C  (37.4F) outside, so the kiddos frolicked in the warm gusts blowing in the carpark….not! But, such is life.

    I know, I know, this is an exercise/makeup regimen 60 day challenge, but my life is literally ‘always an adventure’ and as I’ve already said, there hasn’t been any changes yet so I’m not going to inundate you with pictures of my face or body, instead, I’m going to take you on my adventurous journey on a daily basis and throw in the challenges that I face daily! Hopefully you’ll stick with me as I’m thoroughly enjoying this side of it (the writing that is, not necessarily the exercise) & I can’t wait to see not only where the exercise and Rodan + Fields regimen take me, but where each day takes us! Sweet dreams! 

    PS I didn’t run today! But I did say 5 days/week! 

    PPS My abs are killing me!

    Challenge Accepted Day 3

    So, I have to start today’s blog with the funniest thing that came out of my son’s mouth this morning; but you’ll need a little bit of background information first. In Australia, doodle is another term for penis. In America, doodle means to scribble on a piece of paper (same thing in Australia) but it is also the name given to a dog that is a mix of two breeds, one of them being poodle. We have a dog who is half poodle, half golden retriever, ergo, a golden ‘doodle’. I have used the name doodle interspersed with penis when discussing my son’s private bits with him ever since he was a baby (he’s now 3.5). He walked into the bathroom this morning as I was about to get in the shower and said, “Mummy, I can see your doodle!” Giggle, giggle. I then told him I didn’t have a doodle because I was a girl, his response: “I can see your golden doodle!” OMG! I cracked up! I am still laughing as I write this down and it hurts! 

    Why does it hurt? Because T25 is kicking my butt! I so didn’t want to do it today! And my run was very slow and I’m fairly sure I looked like Eddie from Ab Fab as she attempted to run and I use the word attempted very definitively! Seriously, everything is sore today! As I was doing total body circuit, I wanted to beat every last one of those buff people, including Tania and her ‘I’ve just had a baby and I’m still fit and kicking your arse’ body! When is my day off? Oh crap, not for a little while and if memory serves me correctly, there’s a double workout on Friday! NOOOOO! 

    Let’s talk about something a little more fun than that now, let’s talk about needling! Never heard of it? Have heard of it, but not really sure what it is? Have had it done? Well I’ve not had it done but I’ve heard about it and the amazing results that can be achieved after 4-6 micro-needling procedures. Unfortunately, each procedure costs anything from US$250 – $1000! You also bleed after having it done, then there’s the risk of infection when using products that haven’t been tested as post needling serums. Rodan and Fields offers their own, at-home version of a needling tool. It is called the Amp MD and I have one. It is part of the treatment I am using over the next 57 days. Every night I am rolling the Amp MD over my face & neck for approximately 1 minute, followed by the night renewing serum or ‘liquid velvet’ as I like to call it. The Amp MD feels a bit weird at first, and you should be delicate when using it for the first time and follow the guidelines as to how to use it very closely. I started on Monday night and am incorporating it into my nightly routine. I have honestly seen some incredible before and after photos, and I want some of those results, hence my dedication to giving this full commitment for a total of 60 days. It sounds scary, I know, but it’s not, it’s just weird. But when you get to a certain age, you want results, well I do anyway, without scary, invasive surgery type treatments!
    So, here’s cheers to getting fabulous results! By the way, lunch today was similar to yesterday, though not as good as I didn’t have any avocado! Insert sad face here! Here’s a photo of it for you to enjoy anyway, just in case you’re hungry right now 😉

      
    I didn’t sleep much again last night but this time it was because of silly Vonage! Don’t get me wrong, I love it, we’ve moved all over the USA and now the world and still have our same Texas phone number, but it also means people call it thinking we are on Texas time zone, so the first time it rang at 0140 local time with a recorded message telling me I’d won a cruise, yes ok! Sure! The second time it rang it 0530 telling me Fedex was delivering a package today that needed a signature! Yes, that’s great, unfortunately the package we are expecting isn’t coming to our house here in South Korea, it’s going to my Brother-in-law’s house, and I don’t have a pen on me when it’s 0530 to be able to take note of the tracking number and what to do if no one is there. Most people aren’t home during the day, they do this thing called working. Anyway, I guess they attempted delivery and he wasn’t home so they’ll attempt delivery again tomorrow and again he won’t be home, so we’ll continue to play this game of cat and mouse until Fedex can give me the tracking number again, when I’m in a state to receive it. It’s an important package too and one we’ve been trying to get sent to us here in South Korea ever since we found a house, but obviously there are some anti-us-receiving-it, forces at play, and it’s not going to happen any time soon! 

    Alright, I’m calling it a day as my iPad has gone into funky slow motion mode and looks like a ghost is typing on it. I think that’s a sign for me to stop! Have a great day/night, wherever you are! 

    Challenge Accepted Day 2

    Well, what a weird morning! Oh and OH MY GOD! T25 was a killer last night! I had forgotten how hard it was, all I can say is thank god for Tania! The fact that I could modify saved me.

    Now, where to begin? I guess a little background information on me. I have hypothyroidism. Not too severe, but there are definitely side effects and it’s definitely not fun! What really pisses me off about having this disease is the way people treat me after they find out I have it; “but you’re too thin to be hypothyroid.” “Oh, you only have a mild case of it, that explains it.” What the hell! Seriously! I was diagnosed with it in early 2002, after moving to Bahrain and working as a flight attendant for Gulf Air. All of a sudden, I started putting on lots of weight. There was no particular reason, I wasn’t eating more or partying more than usual but everyone kept saying to me that all the new girls put on weight when they come to Bahrain, it’s normal. Not for me it wasn’t, especially when there was no real reason. We’re not just talking a couple of pounds here or a kilo or two, we’re talking 13 kilos (25+ pounds) in a six month period! I hated myself! I started feeling down about everything! My Mum and Dad came to Bahrain to visit my sister and I and were shocked when they saw me. It was truly awful & you know in your heart of hearts when you’re at fault for putting on a lot of weight and when things are going on in your body that you cannot control! I took exercise pills (dodgy things from various local stores and some I bought in South Africa) I even went to the gym (if you knew me at all at that time, this was a huge deal) but nothing worked. I started smoking 2 packs a day hoping to just not eat at all & still the kilos piled on. Finally I went to the Bahrainy Gulf Air appointed doctor and told him about it, thank god for him is all I have to say! The first thing he said to me was he thought I may have been hypothyroid. I had no clue what that was but read up on it. The results of the blood tests were back within 3 days and yes, my thyroid gland was not functioning as it should be. I went on 50mcg synthroid and within 5 months, had lost all the weight I had put on and was finally feeling like me again, just in time to move to Italy after hubby proposed (but that’s all for another day). This is when people started asking me what I did to lose all that weight and when I told them, they were like “oh, I need to go and get tested, maybe that’s my problem,” or “is that some sort of miracle diet pill?” “Can you get some for me?” Unfortunately they didn’t see all the other things that went with it, my lethargy on days, not wanting to get out of bed. My unexplained sadness that I thought was related to the weight gain, my irritability and mood swings. On top of everything else, I have suffered from insomnia since I was 17. I have tried every ‘natural’ thing out there on the market, I saw a doctor about it finally only a year ago and her advice was to take Benadryl. So that’s what I do, now I take Benadryl every night but unfortunately, it seems to be not working anymore too!  So that’s how last night and the night before went. I really didn’t sleep but had that Benadryl tiredness over me that makes me cranky if the ‘drug ‘ hasn’t done its job. I took two last night thinking that I’d hardly slept the night before so surely they will work tonight, then at 11ish, I got up and had two melatonin because I knew I needed to get some sleep. At about 1am, I finally fell asleep, awoken by my hubby having a very weird dream and looking like he was writing on the headboard (he has never done anything like that before since I’ve known him) and that was it, sleep finished again for a while. I played on my phone and finally drifted off again to be awoken by my alarm going off.

    Ok, so about my weird morning; I got up this morning and just felt drained, I felt cranky. And I’m not really on any diet right now so it’s not anything like that, but it was a drained to the core feeling! I got the girls ready for school and thought I had better go and run whilst I had a little bit of energy, so I did. One mile and man was that tough! My hubby was home with the little one (we’re talking 7:30am by now) & I finished running, with the good intention of starting T25 day 2 & promptly closed my eyes & fell asleep. He came up to tell me he was going to work, so I came downstairs and told the little one to come into bed with me & play on his tablet or I could put Netflix on, and he and I both fell asleep, I awoke at 10:30am feeling better but not great! Very bizarre but one of the combination of things that sometimes seems to happen to me to me due to where hypothyroidism meets insomnia! 

    So here I am, it’s now 11 & I’ve still got to do my morning R+F regimen and T25! So, I’m going to go and do those things and come back to writing this when when I’m done and can report to you that I’ve done what I need to do for the morning 😜

    Ok since starting this, I have now done my morning R+F regimen and T25 Speed 1.0! I actually really enjoyed this day, though the fact that I am not in shape did make it a tad more difficult than it should have been!  My skin feels lovely and my body is aching. I did also have a marvelous lunch if I must say so myself! I’m going to include a photo of it because it was that good!

      
    Doesn’t that look wonderful? I never take the time to make myself a yummy lunch and to be honest, I’m a bit of a fuss pot so there’s a lot of healthy food that I don’t really like, but everything on this plate was so simple to put together and tasted amazing and filled me up! I think that’s a pretty good win for a Tuesday! The chicken is from the cans of chicken meat from Costco, not something I’m normally into but who has time on a weekday to cook up a fresh breast of chicken? Not this lady, I can assure you! Anyway, with a little drizzle of balsamic vinegar over it, the whole thing was not only yummy but good for you too! It’s taco Tuesday, so I thought I’d better eat something to fill me up until dinner and something that doesn’t have a whole heap of calories in it, not that I’m dieting, let me make that very clear, I’m just trying to eat a little better because for over two months we did nothing but eat out! Hence the extra rolls I am now trying to tone down. 

    Ok, so I think that’s me for the day, tomorrow I’ll focus a little more on the skincare side of  it, particularly the Amp MD roller as I think this really needs some extra time and focus, but for right now, I must keep unpacking so that chaos does not surround me! I hope you have an amazing day and I’ll see you on day 3! By the way, the photo below is the only one I have access to right now that gives a bit of an indication as to how big I got during that time. Of course it was the same time as one of my dearest friends got married! 

     

    Challenge Accepted! 

    So I’ve been thinking about the direction my next blog should take and I’ve had numerous ideas but it just hit me when I was in the shower; I’m going to test products (one of which I actually sell) & let you follow my 60 day journey. 

    I’m a Rodan & Fields Consultant and I’ve lost my vibe over the past couple of months because we’ve been in the middle of a massive relocation from Colorado to South Korea, I’ve had three kiddos to take care of in between the big move, we went on a cruise, my hubby has been away for a fair amount of the packing side of this move, we had Christmas in between, I said goodbye to quite a few wonderful friends, and we’ve only just had our household goods arrive here (with my R&F products included). The other challenge is an exercise challenge. I was a heavy smoker for a very long time only giving up smoking forever when I found out I was pregnant with baby number 3! Exercise was something I really didn’t do. I put on a lot of weight with my only son and ate and ate and ate! When he finally came I was bigger than I could ever remember being and I knew it wasn’t going to just drop off me given I was that little bit older now (unfortunately age has a way of slowing down all things weight related). I started to run and found I really enjoyed it. I rigged up a stroller/carrier to hold the baby and my 4 y.o. little girl so I could run after walking my eldest DD to school. We lived in Hawaii right near the beach so it was very easy to enjoy my daily run! I decided I wanted to take part in the Great Aloha Run and I did, eight & a half months after my son was born and I averaged 9.05 (or thereabouts) minutes per mile for the 8 mile run. It was wonderful! I was so proud of myself. I did another run prior to leaving Hawaii and averaged just over 7 mins per mile on that one. Then we moved to Colorado. 

    Hills became part of my run. I continued to run but not as much as I used to. Then one day the wheel of my stroller came off as I was running and that brought an end to the outdoor running. We didn’t want to spend the money on another jogging stroller given our son was now almost three so we bought a treadmill instead. It wasn’t the same, but it helped. Unfortunately though, we went to Australia for 5 weeks and I didn’t run as much. We came back and found out we were moving so I repaired and renovated and packed and sorted and ran less and less. Then winter hit and I ran less….. and less. Finally I just stopped with only an intermittent run on the treadmill. We went on a cruise on January 2nd of this year and I did run in the onboard gym on the boat but honestly it makes you feel queezy when you run on a treadmill in a gym and look at the water going by. And it was too cold to use the outdoor track. We came back, packed up, moved to hotel after hotel and started eating out every day. Running went by the by and here I am in very cold South Korea with my newly arrived treadmill.

    Where am I going with all of this, where does Rodan & Fields meet running? Well, I am challenging myself to 60 days of running 5 days/week & doing some sort of exercise program (probably a Beach Body program like T25 or Insanity) & to taking the 60 day Rodan & Fields Redefine challenge for my face! I turn 42 years old on May 7! 42! How did that happen? If I can’t get the results I want from my Rodan and Fields products then I’m going to get Botox as my birthday present to me for this horrible verticle wrinkle I have in the middle of my forehead and I am sharing this journey with all of you. As far as the exercise goes, no I’m not going on some crazy diet, I just noticed things getting a tad flabby and I need to tighten them back up as well as reinvigorate myself! Anyway, let’s go on this journey together, let’s see these products/programs in action! If, in 60 days we see the amazing things happen with my skin that I’ve seen happen to others who have diligently followed the prescribed regimen, then you can order your products through me (😉) & I have a friend who’s a Beach Body Coach so I can send you her way if whatever program I choose gives me some good results! So come along with me on this journey. I’m starting on Monday (March 7, South Korean time of course) and I can’t wait. I’ll post daily photos and what I’ve done that day and how I’m feeling as far as both body and skin go. Don’t worry, there will be other blogs in between, I’ve got so much to say and very little time now that my house is in chaos! But more on that later…..